The Deeper Seeing, pp. 167-168

Opening Remarks
There is however a greater view of self and world, a view that neither Science nor Religion offers. It is this that is being shared with us now.

A provisional scheme
Yet was this only a provisional scheme,
A false appearance sketched by limiting sense,
Mind’s insufficient self-discovery,
An early attempt, a first experiment.

This outlook of Science and this uplook of Religion are but only the beginnings of our search. It is a provisional scheme around which humanity revolves its life while it still labours through the circuits of ignorance.

A toy to amuse
This was a toy to amuse the infant earth;
But knowledge ends not in these surface powers
That live upon a ledge in the Ignorance
And dare not look into the dangerous depths
Or to stare upward measuring the Unknown.

But this is only a beginning of a long journey that humanity is yet to undertake driven by the evolutionary impulsion inbuilt within it. What we have accomplished right now is a massive machinery to drive our life, to provide comfort and prolong the life of ignorance. But these are still an infant’s toys compared to what yet is still to come. One day man shall look into deeper depths than he has confronted and higher heights that are concealed within him as unknown altitudes of his own nature.

A greater vision
There is a deeper seeing from within
And, when we have left these small purlieus of mind,
A greater vision meets us on the heights
In the luminous wideness of the spirit’s gaze.

But for this deeper, wider and luminous seeing the spirit should first release itself from the mind which is the stronghold of ignorance.

A witness Soul
At last there wakes in us a witness Soul
That looks at truths unseen and scans the Unknown;
Then all assumes a new and marvellous face:
The world quivers with a God-light at its core,
In Time’s deep heart high purposes move and live,
Life’s borders crumble and join infinity.

A time does come when at last the soul breaks free from the sheaths of ignorance that bind it. It wakes up to the call of infinity and discovers the God-Light and the Bliss that burns in the core of creation. Then all becomes a marvel and the purpose of creation is known and the now hidden truths reveal their secrets.

A magnificent imbroglio
This broad, confused, yet rigid scheme becomes
A magnificent imbroglio of the Gods,
A game, a work ambiguously divine.

Then this very material frame that seems to imprison us is seen as only the rough and broad outline of an unfinished painting, a game divine that is far from over, a work half-finished.

The luminous self of Truth and Bliss
Our seekings are short-lived experiments
Made by a wordless and inscrutable Power
Testing its issues from inconscient Night
To meet its luminous self of Truth and Bliss.
It peers at the Real through the apparent form;
It labours in our mortal mind and sense;
Amid the figures of the Ignorance,
In the symbol pictures drawn by word and thought,
It seeks the truth to which all figures point;
It looks for the source of Light with vision’s lamp;
It works to find the Doer of all works,
The unfelt Self within who is the guide,
The unknown Self above who is the goal.

What we have sought and found so far is only a beginning and much more is yet to come. It is a practice game that we have played so far while the real game is yet to being. What we have managed is to scan the apparent surfaces while the occult depths remain unsounded within. We have measured the world outside while the inner self of Truth and Bliss await our discovery. While this creation itself points towards its Source yet we have not yet looked in that direction for the Source is within us, within the inmost heart of all things. It is That luminous Self hid deep within its creatures who is the All-knowing Guide and the goal of creation.

Closing Remarks
Thus Sri Aurobindo gives us hope as always and also spurs us to labour on and gives us the direction towards which we must turn our eyes now. He contrasts the incomplete and imperfect vision of Science and Religion and joins it to the broader and deeper vision of the Spirit that is yet to emerge in man.